In the War of Art by Steven Pressfield, he talks about how we feel the strongest resistance when the task is the most meaningful to our soul's evolution. This shows up as different things like procrastination, fear, doubt, and excuses. This can be both a blessing and a curse.

The curse is it's so hard to make ourselves do the things we want to do when resistance is so strong. The blessing is the resistance can help identify the things you should be focused on. There are many ways to overcome, but that doesn't make it easy.

One thing he talks about is shifting your mindset from amateur to professional. An amateur will stack all kinds of reasons to not do the tasks. A professional gets it done no matter what.

This is one of my favorite quotes from the book: "How many pages have I produced? I don't care. Are they any good? I don't even think about it. All that matters is I've put in my time and hit it with all I've got. All that counts is that, for this day, for this session, I have overcome Resistance."

Professionals get the work done regardless of how strong the resistance is.

— Bus

We all can find ourselves in a rut from time to time, lacking motivation and having difficulty getting things done. When this happens to me, I try to remember the best way to find motivation is to make progress.

While motivation might pop up from time to time, that isn't reliable. The most reliable way to find motivation is to create it with action. If you feel like you can't get yourself to move forward, just write a list of a few things that will move you forward.

A little bit of progress and checking the tasks off the list will not only create motivation over time, it'll compound. A little bit every day turns into a lot over a week, month, or year.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about energy management—specifically, what feeds our energy and what drains it.

How many times have you had a bad interaction with someone, only to stew over it for hours, days, or even longer? Social media makes this even worse. One negative post can trigger a response, leading to a back-and-forth spiral that eats up time and energy.

But here's the question: How much energy is being wasted in those moments?

And more importantly—how could that energy be used to build something better?

If this resonates, take a hard look at the people, habits, and environments in your life. What's fueling you? What's draining you? Then ask yourself: What could I create if I redirected that energy?

This podcast is available on all your favorite audio platforms and on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@busmsk

The idea of a mastermind is to combine multiple minds to takle various things. In this episode, Bus talks over some ideas on using a mastermind for various things like fitness, graffiti, personal development, etc.

Establishing core values is a fairly common thing in the business world. It's a vital tool in creating and maintaining a strong company culture. Less common is establishing them for your own personal life. We all have them to a certain degree, but few of us have them written down and revisit them often.

Some people use the shopping cart analogy. Putting the shopping cart away or leaving it next to your car when you're done is a reflection of your core values. If you're the type of person that always puts it away, this kind of behavior will more than likely be present in other parts of your life. If you're the person that leaves it for someone else to deal with, it's most definitely not the only place you do this.

Bus Links
Instagram: http://instagram.com/bus166
Writing: https://bus166.substack.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bus166msk

Chapter 26 of Epictetus' Enchiridion shares some great wisdom that most of us probably forgot, or never think of to apply. How many times has a friend come to you with an issue and you respond with excellent advice?

You can easily see all of the ins and outs of their issue and offer objective advice for them. Solutions for their issue comes easier for you because you're not in the middle of it like they are. You're not dealing with the stress, sadness, anger, or whatever emotions their situation is causing, so you can see angles they can't.

Then what happens when they exact same thing is happening to you? Where is all the wisdom? Seems like it's gone. Now you're dealing with all of the emotions and are blinded to the angles you could easily see when your friend was going through it. Epictetus reminds us to apply the same wisdom to ourselves.

Disconnect from the shit and look at it objectively in the same way you did for your friend.

This quote is from The Good Life Handbook. Based on the teachings of Epictitus.

Our comfort zone functions like a cage. The closer we get to the bars, the more uncomforabe it becomes. With practive, you can push through the bars into freedom.

I read the quote 'What's it going to take?' in the book Market Outrageously. It was talking about actually looking deep at a goal and trying to get to the bottom of what it would take to accomplish. Even seemingly impossible goals are worth trying to break down.

In my life and business, I have goals that are overwhelming to think about. When I read this part of the book, I was inspired to actually dig into it much further. Things start seeming much more achievable once you start breaking it down into smaller chunks.

Ask yourself this question about a goal you have, then sit down and try to figure out what steps you need to take to make it happen. There is a lot of clarity that can be achieved with this.

I came in a little hot on this one, but this is getting out of control. Have you ever thought about how much money is being made off of people being fat, sick and lazy?

We're programmed from a very young age to desire terrible 'food'. Look at the messaging on sugar and chemical filled cereals, kids menus, sugary drinks, etc. and this carries over into our adult lives.

Then we start having health issues and in come the medications, diet fads and offers to make you 'healthy' without doing the work. We need to get out of this cycle and stop making billions, even trillions of dollars for these predatory industries. It's simple, but not easy to do. Nobody is going to do the work for you.

We know that anything we do has the potential to not go the way we intended. It often catches us off guard and negative emotions can come from it. One thing the stoics teach us is to take some time to acknowledge that things can go wrong. Rehearse the possible outcomes in your mind, then if these things do happen you'll be more equipped to stay calm and not let your emotions get ahead of you.

Then something sticks. It doesn't pass through. Maybe something that bothers you or triggers a bad memory. We hang onto it, let it invade our mind and sap our energy.

What if you could let anything you want just pass through like all the other things you see every minute of every day? How much more energy would you have? How much more happy and productive could you be?

Kub, we miss you, brother.

We've all heard the phrases about living in the moment, tomorrow isn't promised, live today like it's your last, etc., but how many of us really consider this? How much differently would you live your life if you were able to maintain this perspective? On this episode, Bus shares a story that helped him put these concepts into perspective; maybe it will help you as well.

Follow Bus on Instagram @bus166
Follow Kub on Instagram @_sir_kub_

This episode also has some wisdom from Kub at the end, so be sure to stay tuned for that.

In this episode, we talk about the force known as resistance; it comes in many forms and keeps us from doing what we need to do. Whether it is doing more art, getting in shape, or starting an important project, resistance always seems to be waiting to fuck us up.

Check out the book The War of Art by Steven Pressfield to get a more in depth view on the subject.

Also have a listen to Andy Frisella and Ben Newman talking about winning the day on the Real AF podcast:
https://andyfrisella.com/blogs/realaf-podcast/15-win-the-day-ft-ben-newman

Your self-talk can function in the same way as a thermostat in your house. Set the thermostat to a certain temperature, it'll keep your house at that temperature. If you have negative self-talk in your mind, you could be setting the thermostat to keep yourself there. 

I heard Alex Hormozi say this, and it stuck with me. When things get hard, most people give up. The idea of consistently getting better in all areas of life is not the norm in society. And in some ways, that's fine—if you're happy with where you're at. But the way I see it, most people aren't happy with staying the same. We want something more for our lives, but pushing ourselves into discomfort is hard. The truth is, doing the hard things is what's required to make our lives better. Where in your life do you feel like quitting—but know you need to keep pushing?

The internet changed just about every aspect of the world including the graffiti culture. This episode focuses on some positive ways you can utilize socail media as a the powerfull networking tool that it is.

Negative thoughts have a way of derailing even the best of moods, but these thoughts can be a trigger to shift your mind into positive action.

Check out the book discussed in this episode Relentless Solution Focus:
https://www.amazon.com/Relentless-Solution-Focus-Pressure-Underperformance/dp/1260460118

This is a common phrase at the moment, but how does it work? Bus talks about recent concepts that came up during failures and learning from them. Mental health, physical health, business and relationships are connected and slipping in one area usually means you're slipping in others.

Check out Andy Frisella's podcast episode on 75 Hard here:
https://andyfrisella.com/blogs/realaf-podcast/14-75hard-a-tactical-guide-to-winning-the-war-with-yourself

Here are links to the books mentioned in this episode:

75 Hard
https://andyfrisella.com/products/75-hard-a-tactical-guide-to-winning-the-war-with-yourself

How to Make Shit Happen
https://www.amazon.com/How-Make-Sh-Happen-relationships/dp/1984268945

Sometimes we get so caught up in things we forget that the immediate moment is the only time we have control over. We can't change the past, and we can't live in the future. Right now is it.

The host of the Toy Division Podcast and Bus have a deep conversation about the various ways the human brain works. The guys get into the positive changes they made that helped improve their careers, personal lives, graffiti and virtually every aspect of their lives.

Check out the Toy Division Podcast on all your favorite podcast platforms and on Instagram @toydivision_podcast.

This week Bus talks with Callye Keen, a physical product manufacturer and coach, entrepreneur, artist, designer, and host of the End Hype podcast. Callye and Bus discuss different ways the knowledge and skills graffiti writers develop over their careers can directly apply to various real world skills like marketing, entrepreneurship, team building, etc. 

Check out Callye's podcast End Hype on your favorite podcast platforms and YouTube, on Instagram and Twitter @callyekeen. He's also very active on Clubhouse dropping lots of knowledge @callye. Check out Red Blue Collective online at https://www.redbluecollective.com/.

Google the guy. There is much to learn from him.

Getting motivated can be tough, but once you have momentum, it becomes a lot easier to keep moving. Think about a freight train; it takes some time and energy to get up to speed, but once it's going, it's hard to stop. The same can be said for you. This episode goes over some tools to help get that momentum going.

Believing in the outcome can be a huge factor in accomplishing your goals. This can go in both directions; you can believe in the positive to help achieve those results, or you can believe in negative results that will hold you back.

We are the only ones with the power to divide us.

We all have those small tasks we avoid—paperwork piling up, a cluttered office, or something simple that feels like a hassle. For me, those things build up in my mind and start to weigh on me. But when I finally take care of them, there's always a sense of relief.

Research shows that unfinished tasks, or "open loops," take up mental space and increase stress. The more we avoid them, the more they quietly drain our energy. Tackling them right away frees up that mental clutter and makes life feel lighter.

Stop waiting. Do it now. It's worth it.

We get back what we give. Put negativity out in the world, you can expect to get negativity back; put positivity out in the world without expecting anything in return, positive things will happen for you.

A lot of people fail to realize that we are not stuck with being the way we are. If things about yourself are not serving you, you don't have to accept them. You have the ability to grow and become a completely different person if you are willing to put in the work.

We humans seem to love comparing ourselves to others. The only person we should be comparing ourselves to is who we were yesterday. Are you moving forward? Can you do better? Someone is always going to have it better or worse than you, but it doesn't change your circumstances.

It's often difficult to make big changes and stay on track, but a small pivot and consistency can get you going down a different path. On this episode, Bus talks about making small shifts and how they can turn into exponential growth.

In this episode, Bus talks about how people bash things like a paint brand, a kind of cap, or a certain style with such conviction. Most of the time, they're just putting things down that don't fit into their own personal taste, but trying to sell it as a fact. Why do people do this?

With art existing for tens of thousands of years and our version of Graffiti being around for a half century, how realistic is it that we are creating something that has never been done? Are we all biters in some way or another, or is it just influence and natural progression?

As graffiti writers, we are faced with a lot of decisions that could have both positive and negative affects on the rest of our lives. The goal of this episode it to shine some light on some of the common decisions most of us have to make in an effort to get people thinking about these decisions before making them.

With all the negativity in the world, we decided to make Wednesdays the official Don't be a Dick day. Listen to the episode for details and check out our Instagram @machinestudio to get involved.

There is growth on the other side of discomfort. This episode talks about intentionally putting yourself in uncomfortable situations frequently to build mental toughness.

This episode shares some insight on how the podcast will move forward, then transitions into some thoughts on how little we have control over and investing energy into the things we do.

In this episode, we explore the Craftsman Mindset from Cal Newport's So Good They Can't Ignore You. This idea flips the script on "following your passion" and emphasizes mastering skills as the key to meaningful work.

I share a powerful dream that confirmed my dedication to my path, reflect on the challenges of entrepreneurship, and discuss how honing skills—like marketing and leadership—has brought meaning to my work. We also touch on examples like Steve Jobs and finding fulfillment in any job through mastery.

If you're questioning your path or looking for more purpose in your work, this episode is for you.

Kub was a true force for good in this world and he will be greatly missed. Things won't be the same without him, but we will continue to push forward. This project was very important to him and we would be doing him a disservice by stopping now.

Bus and Kub discuss the our thoughts on people starting graffiti at an older age and those that put the can down and try to get back into it after some years.

Bus and Kub have a conversation about the Us vs. Them mentality.